The Pemon language (or in Spanish) is an

Indigenous language An indigenous language, or autochthonous language, is a language that is native to a region and spoken by its indigenous peoples. Indigenous languages are not necessarily national languages but they can be; for example, Aymara is both an indigen ...

of the Cariban family spoken by some 30,000

Pemon The Pemon or Pemón (Pemong) are Indigenous people living in areas of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana.See pp.112,113 and 178 of ''Venezuela: the Pemon'', in '' Condé Nast Traveler'', December 2008. The Pemon people are divided into many dialects ...

people, in

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

's Southeast, particularly in the

Canaima National Park Canaima National Park () is a park in south-eastern Venezuela that roughly occupies the same area as the La Gran Sabana, Gran Sabana region. It is located in Bolívar State (Venezuela), Bolívar State, reaching the borders with Brazil and Guya ...

, in the

Roraima Roraima ( ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil. Located in the country's North Region, it is the northernmost and most geographically and logistically isolated state in Brazil. It is bordered by the state of Pará to the southeast, Amazonas t ...

State of Brazil and in

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

. It covers several dialects, including ''Arecuna'' (or ''Arekuna''), ''Camaracota'', ''Camaracoto'', ''Ingariko'' (or ''

Ingarikó Ingarikó (Ingaricó) or Kapon is a term that collectively refers to three closely related tribes of indigenous people of South America, living in areas of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana. Linguistically, the three groups fall within the Cariban lang ...

''), ''Taulipang'', and ''Taurepan'' (''Camaracoto'' may be a distinct language). The Pemon language may also be known and designated informally by one of the two dialects ''Arecuna'' (or ''Arekuna'') or ''Ingariko'' (or ''Ingarikó''), or incorrectly under the name ''Kapon'' which normally designates another closely related small group of languages. Pemon is one of several other closely related Venezuelan Cariban languages which also include the

Macushi The Macushi (''Makuusi'', ) are an Indigenous people living in the borderlands of southern Guyana, northern Brazil in the state of Roraima, and in an eastern part of Venezuela. Identification The Macushi are also known as the Macusi, Macussi, ...

and Kapon (or ''Kapong'', also sometimes used by natives to name the Pemon language itself, even if Kapon strictly covers only the two Akawaio and Patamona languages). These four languages (including Macushi) form the group of Pemongan (or ''Pemóng'') languages. The broad ''Kapon'' (or ''Kapong'') and selective ''Ingariko'' (or ''Ingarikó'') terms are also used locally as a common ethnonym grouping Pemón, Akawaio, and Patamono peoples (and sometimes as well the Macushi people), and may be used as well to refer to the group of the four Pemongan (or ''Pemóng'') languages that they speak.

Typology

The Pemon language's syntax type is SOV with alternation to OVS.

Writing

Pemon was an oral language until the 20th century. Then efforts were made to produce dictionaries and grammars, primarily by Catholic missionaries, specially Armellada and Gutiérrez Salazar. The Latin alphabet has been used, adding diacritic signs to represent some phonemes not existing in Spanish.

Phonology

Vowels

Arekuna Pemon has the following vowels: There are still texts only using Spanish characters, without distinguishing between pairs such as /o/ and /ɤ/. Diphthong sounds are .

Consonants

Allophones of /s n k j/ are

ʃ ŋ ʔ ʎ Esh (majuscule: Ʃ, minuscule: ʃ) is a character used in phonology to represent the voiceless postalveolar fricative (English , as in ''"ship"''). In Unicode, these letters are encoded as and Form, usage, and history Its lowercase form ...

Grammar

Pronouns in Pemon are:

References

Literature

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External links

Introducción al pemón (Spanish)

Portal Japiim
(online dictionary) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pemon Language Languages of Venezuela Indigenous topics of the Guianas Indigenous languages of the South American Northwest br:Pemoneg qu:Pemon simi